Spring, c.1860-61. Oil on canvas. 11 x 14 ¼ inches (28 x 36.5 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of Sotheby's. [Click on all the images to enlarge them.]
On an old label of the reverse of the frame is inscribed No 2 / Spring / D A Williamson / 2 Albert Cottages / Denmark Road / Coldharbour Lane / Camberwell / London S.: Williamson lived at this location between 1857 and 1861 so the painting must date from somewhere within this time period. Allen Staley has stated that "None of Williamson's work of the 1850s suggests any awareness of Pre-Raphaelitism" suggesting the painting therefore most likely dates to 1860 or 1861. This work had initially belonged to Judge Lushington, probably the son, Vernon Lushington, rather than his father, Stephen Lushington. Vernon Lushington was a friend of Pre-Raphaelite artists like D. G. Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, and Edward Burne-Jones through serving on the council of the Working Men's College.
Closer views. Left: The shepherd boy. Right: The sheep with lambs.
Late during his stay in London Williamson had adopted the Pre-Raphaelite method of painting with translucent glazes on a white ground that gives this work its particular bright colouring and luminosity. It is painted with the precise details of "truth to nature" used by Pre-Raphaelite artists associated with the first phase of this movement. Like most of Williamson's London paintings from this time period it featured either cattle or sheep, in this particular case a flock of sheep being herded by a young shepherd boy with a lamb held in his arms. The landscape again appears to be Peckham Common with the spire of St Mary Magdalene, Peckham, seen in the centre of the middle ground. The sheep are trudging along a rocky path with trees and a hedgerow to the left and a worn pedestrian trail seen to the right. Trees and bushes figure prominently in the midground. Williamson has painted a particularly spectacular sky with a shower of rain coming down. When this work sold at Sotheby's in 2021 their experts felt "The lyric subject of the young shepherd and his flock recalls the work of William Holman Hunt and Samuel Palmer."
Links to Related Material
- William J. C. Bond's Spring Morning (1863)
- Frederick Walker's Spring (1864)
- George Vicat Cole's Spring or Springtime (exhibited 1865)
Bibliography
European and British Art. London: Sotheby's (December 15, 2021): lot 38. https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/european-british-art-2/spring
Created 16 August 2024